Three Weeks, Two Marathons, One Chronic Illness

A Run with a Boston Qualifier

My son’s school principal is a fast runner, well, fast to me. He’s a Boston qualifier, and runs between 3:00 and 3:20 marathons. I had been wanting to talk to him about the Newton Hills at the Boston Marathon for a while.

Well, I saw him out running on Tuesday morning, and thought, what a better way to talk than to run with him. So, I turned with him and started to quiz him about Boston. Well, I ran with him for about a mile before he turned. During that run, I learned two things. First, the Newton Hills aren’t that bad, it just where they are placed. They’re nothing like the hills for the Pig. Second, I can keep up with a fast runner for a mile, and probably longer.

Now, the sad part is that this was his easy run. When he’s really running, it’s 6:00 minute miles. That’s faster than I’ll ever be. I’m just glad he wasn’t doing a tempo run, because I’d be dead. It did make me feel good that I could keep up with him, even though he was going slow.

I also talked to him about doing both Boston and the Pig. He said that both times he’s done it, it wasn’t that bad. His suggestion was to treat Boston as a long training run. He said that you are NOT going to PR on the course, and to just enjoy it. Even take a disposable camera and take lots of pics. Some good ideas, if I do say so myself.